IN THIS GUIDE · Present multiple revenue lines as one accurately defined investment proposal
Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Define the enterprise being assessed
Hypothetical example: a business sells equipment and offers maintenance. Identify the actual legal ownership, operating activities and capital commitments. Explain whether projections describe the same enterprise or distinct arrangements requiring separate assessment.
Reconcile the capital with real obligations
Show lawful source and path, funds committed at risk and actual purchase or startup costs. There is no universal E-2 minimum. Money merely reserved in an account does not automatically constitute investment; properly structured visa-contingent escrow requires review.
Assess the complete operating picture
Substantiality relates to the cost and nature of the enterprise. Nonmarginality concerns capacity beyond minimal living for the investor and family or a significant economic contribution. Do not omit genuine expenses from a weaker revenue line to improve a combined forecast.
Keep nationality and direction visible
The principal needs qualifying treaty nationality and development and direction of the enterprise. Generally at least half the enterprise must have the relevant treaty-national ownership. Financing secured by enterprise assets is not qualifying investment capital; other loan arrangements require their own security and source analysis. The enterprise-asset exclusion also applies when the loan has mixed enterprise and personal collateral.
Explain enterprise nationality and nonmarginality precisely
The enterprise generally must be at least 50% owned by nationals of the relevant treaty country; the applicant’s passport alone does not establish enterprise nationality. Nonmarginality includes capacity to provide more than a minimal living for the investor and family, with the alternative of a significant economic contribution. Apply those conditions to the real operating proposal rather than importing EB-5’s capital amounts or ten-job rule into E-2. Projected future capacity should generally be attainable within five years of normal business activity. Development and direction may be shown by at least 50% ownership or operational control through a managerial position or another corporate device. The applicant must intend to depart when E status ends.
Funds, escrow and revocation need fact-specific review
The investment must be substantial in relation to the total cost of purchasing or establishing the enterprise, judged proportionally rather than against a fixed figure. A substantial investment must be committed and irrevocably at risk in a real, active enterprise, and there is no published dollar threshold to reach. The nursery qualifies as a Canadian enterprise only while treaty nationals own at least fifty percent of it. The enterprise has to be a real and active commercial undertaking producing goods or services for profit, not an idle holding of land or a paper company waiting for a decision. Unsecured personal card debt for which the investor remains personally liable is analysed differently from borrowing secured by the assets of the United States enterprise itself. Funds must be genuinely committed and exposed to commercial loss, so deposits, escrow terms, refund rights and revocation clauses require fact-specific review rather than a blanket assumption. Funds paid into an escrow that releases to the seller when the visa is issued and returns to the buyer if it is refused can qualify, because the commitment is irrevocable on the investor's side. The business must not be marginal, and the evidence should connect the recovery plan to actual authority to develop and direct operations rather than to a passive financial interest.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.